Band of the Week: Nightly

THE PHILLY SOUND: When growing up outside of Philadelphia, Nightly singer Jonathan Capeci listened to modern rock radio and got a good dose of bands such as the Police, U2 and the Killers. “Those are the three main bands we love,” he says. “We’ve grown up with that kind of music, and that’s our favorite music.” Capeci and Beretta grew up together and played together in a couple of bands that had performed on Warped Tour. A couple of years ago, they moved to Nashville to “give it a proper go.” Once in Nashville, the group put four songs on a private Soundcloud link in the attempt to get a booking agent. The link was passed around, and the band started to generate some interest. It self-released the song “XO,” and things went “a bit nuts,” as Capeci puts it. “We hadn’t even played a live show,” he says. “But at that point, we started to hear from labels and Interscope was the one that understood the vision of what we wanted.”

AN HONEST RECORDING: For its first EP, honest, the band teamed up with an up-and-coming producer Keith Haron, who cut the tracks in his Los Angeles apartment. “We worked whatever hours we could and had to record when his roommate was at work,” says Capeci. “That recording ended up being the final thing that’s out there now.”

WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR THEM: With its reverberating guitars, R&B-inspired bass riff and soulful vocals, “XO” features an infectious pop hook. “I love you/but I gotta let go,” Capeci croons. “We thought if we could get 100,000 streams in a couple of months, that would be great for a new band, but it did much better than that,” says Capeci when asked about the song’s appeal. “It comes from an honest place, yet it’s not super heavy or anything. I think it’s just an uplifting song.” The group currently has another EP in the works, and Capeci says it might issue a third EP next year before issuing a full-length. “We have a ton of new music, and when the tour is over, we’ll go back into our demo folder, which has something like 25 unfinished songs,” he says. “We’ll have a couple more songs out in the fall.”